The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Source
- First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1933
- Written
- 1933
About this quotation
Roosevelt said this at the start of his presidency, with a quarter of the American workforce unemployed. The full sentence continues: “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” It was aimed at the panic around bank failures rather than at fear in general.